Tagged: iCloud

Yesterday’s WWDC keynote was full of surprises. It was notable not only for what it contained (updates to both iOS and OS X) but also for what it didn’t contain (no new hardware). And while most of the commentary thus far has centred around the new features of Apple’s two platforms, I think it’s worth looking a little closer at what these features mean, especially as it relates to the competition.

Blurring the lines between desktop and mobile

Have you noticed that as we’ve embraced mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, we seem to be living in an increasingly fractured world? Yes, it’s true that you can get to social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter easily from any device and there’s no noticeable difference when switching other than screen size, but what about other tasks? We’ve been forced to find workarounds to overcome the fact that our so-called desktop machines (which more and more are laptops, not true desktops) and our mobile devices don’t talk to one another. Evernote. Dropbox. Google Drive and Google Docs. Office 365. Gmail. As good and useful as these products are, they’re band-aids. They exist because mobile operating systems and their desktop equivalents have never really known how to help users transition seamlessly between them.

What’s peculiar is how accepting we users have become of this situation. Signing up for and managing a raft of products, services, accounts and passwords, all so we can keep our digital lives within easy access from whichever device we’re working on.

Well, what if all of that went away?

It starts with iCloud Drive

If I were the CEO of Dropbox, yesterday’s keynote would have sent a cold chill down my spine. That’s because Apple’s announcement of an extension to iCloud called iCloud Drive, is a direct competitor. Dropbox is great because it’s simple. It is nothing more than a place in the cloud where you can store your files, retrieve them from anywhere and share them with anyone. The problem with simple though, is that it’s easily duplicated and improved upon. Because iCloud Drive will offer the exact same feature set, but will also be a native component of both OS X and iOS, it will be easier to use than Dropbox. Especially if you work a lot in Apple’s own suite of productivity tools: Keynote, Pages and Numbers (collectively known as iWork). And while Apple’s pricing of iCloud Drive makes it more expensive on a per MB basis that Google Drive, it’s cheaper than Dropbox. Can you guess which company Apple has targeted with this move?

It continues with Handoff

Of course, simply embedding a Dropbox knock-off into the OS isn’t going to change anyone’s world overnight (well, unless you’re Dropbox’s CEO), because being able to store files in the cloud isn’t new and it wasn’t hard to do prior to iCloud Drive. It’s best to look at iCloud Drive as a highway or rail system. You need it to help people get from A to B, but without a car or train, it’s only half of the solution.

The other half is breaking down the barriers between devices. If you’re working on a proposal on your Mac using Pages and you’ve got to leave the office or home to make a meeting in an hour, why should you have to save your work and email it to yourself (if you haven’t embraced the cloud yet) or save it to Dropbox (or even iCloud) and then retrieve that document on your iPad when you’ve boarded the subway? Or what about that detailed email you were in the middle of composing but weren’t quite ready to send yet?

With Handoff—a feature that you will forget about almost as soon as you start using it—as long as you’re signed in with your Apple ID, all of these activities will follow you from one device to another, as though you had never switched at all. At launch, Handoff will work with Apple’s core apps like Mail, Safari, iWork etc., but developers will be able to add Handoff to their apps too.

Multiple, smart environments

Have you noticed the way that Microsoft put such a huge emphasis on making all of their versions of Windows 8 look and work similarly regardless whether you were using a full PC, tablet or smartphone? On the one hand, it creates a familiar environment on all of your devices. On the other hand, it completely misses the point. When it comes to smart devices, we need smart operating systems. That doesn’t mean making all of these machines operate the same way, it means designing operating systems that make using these devices as easy and simple as possible. To achieve this, function must follow form, not vice versa.

Apple clearly gets this. Instead of doing a full revamp of OS X to make it a desktop version of iOS, or trying to cram a full version of OS X onto an iPad (ahem, Microsoft Surface), it’s letting the devices themselves dictate the right user experience, while silently and invisibly connecting these disparate device in the background.

Continuity is one more reason to buy a Mac

While I absolutely believe that Apple has made these enhancements to help their customers further simplify their lives and eliminate some of the pesky irritations that our multi-device world has created, they’ve significantly strengthened the Apple ecosystem at the same time.

Because while iCloud Drive will offer easy access to cloud-stored documents for Windows users too, in order to benefit from the full package that Handoff offers, you’ll need to own Apple hardware.

And while it’s true that more and more people are beginning to work exclusively on tablets and smartphones, there’s still plenty more who want a full PC. If that’s you, and you don’t yet own a Mac, Apple’s Continuity (the name they’ve given the suite of products and services that enable this seamless switching process) is a compelling reason to buy one.

One more thing

There’s a quote attributed to Steve Jobs that “a lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” It’s been true of Apple’s products more often than not. The iPod, iPhone, iPad… few of these were products that customers had been shouting for ahead of their debut, and yet, once they got their hands on them, they realized they were the products they wanted. Apple’s new direction for software, in the form of Continuity, is another example of something that few people realized they needed or wanted (because we’ve all become so used to the band-aids). But I think that once people start using it, they’ll wonder how they ever got along without it.

Apple’s iCloud is possibly the best thing to happen to smartphones since the touch-screen. Not only does it seamlessly synchronize your data between all of your iOS devices, it does the same thing for your Mac or PC – and – it acts as a tether-free way to backup the contents of your iPhone.

When I recently switched from my iOS 5 equipped iPhone 4 to the loaner iPhone 4S I started using last week, I used the iCloud restore feature to port all of my settings and apps. The result was astounding. After the restore, which by the way was completely done over Wi-Fi – no tethering to a computer or iTunes – my 4S looked like a complete clone of my 4, right down to the wallpaper for my lock and home screens. The only thing I had to do was re-enter my Wi-Fi passwords.

But I digress…

One thing I noticed about this process was, while the backup and restore via iCloud was impressive, my backup size was really big. In fact, I had already come close to using up all of the free 5GB that Apple allots to all iOS 5 Apple IDs. If I only had the one device, that might not be the end of the world. But the iPhone is just one of three iOS devices I use under my Apple ID and there’s simply no way I was going to be able to back the other two up without needing some more room.

But it turns out there’s a simple way to drastically reduce the size of your iPhone backup.

When you go into your iCloud settings, and check out the options for Backup and Storage, you’ll see that each and every app on your device can be set to have its data backed up, or not. Including the Camera Roll. That’s key, because if you’re like most iPhone users and you make regular use of the awesome camera on these phones, you probably have plenty of photos and videos.

When I checked mine, it was sitting at 4.4 GB!

No wonder I was almost out of room. So I turned it off.

Huh? Yep, I turned it off and saved myself nearly all of the storage space I had been sucking up. I know what you’re thinking, but my photos are *still* backed up.

Here’s why: The PhotoStream feature on iOS 5, when turned on, automatically keeps a copy of the last 1,000 photos you’ve taken, regardless of which device you used, on a 30-day rolling period. And those photos do NOT count toward your Backup and Storage capacity. It’s free storage from Apple, and it’s even better than using your iCloud storage space. PhotoStream sends your photos to your computer which is ultimately where you want them anyway.

There’s only one caveat. If you take a lot of video on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll need to remember to back these up manually, since PhotoStream doesn’t backup your videos – only your photos.

One last thought if you’re thinking that backing up your Camera Roll is something you want to keep doing: your iCloud storage space isn’t the only area that is impacted.

When your phone is locked and plugged into power and connected to Wi-Fi, it will automatically backup your data. For most people, that means overnight while you’re sleeping at home.

Consider that even a backup of 2GB can consume a good chunk of your bandwidth cap, it’s well worth keeping your backups as small as possible.

Make sure you check the full list of apps that are backing up to iCloud – most use virtually no room, but some can be hefty. Check out those Songify and Kindle items in the image above. Only 70Mb between them, but I have very few books or songs in there. It could go much higher.

I’ve never been a MobileMe user. So when I upgraded to iOS 5 the other day, I happily went along with the instructions on how to create a free account and never gave the experience another thought.

But that was decidedly not the case for one of our mobile developers here at Sympatico.ca. Chris Tsang has been a MobileMe guy for, well, a *really* long time. But this loyalty to Apple’s much-criticized product nearly had him tearing his hair out when he upgraded to iOS 5.

Let his experience be a cautionary tale (and a darn good explanation of what *not* to do) for all you MobileMe folks out there, especially if you want to use iCloud…

After downloading the ios 5 update, my iphone 4 was ready for me to setup. You’ll get to a screen that asks you for your Apple ID. If you previously had a mobileme account you need to make sure that you enter in your mobileme email instead of your AppleID used for iTunes purchases. If you enter in your AppleID you’ll find that you won’t be able to use icloud services with your precious mobileme email. If you go to iCloud settings and attempt to slide email to on, it will ask you if you want to create a free .me account which won’t make sense because you already have one.

To fix this, I had to erase all content and settings and start over. Once I got to the Apple ID screen again, enter your mobileme email address and then continue with the setup. Once you are finished with the setup you will see notice another unpleasant surprise in that you will notice that all of your apps are now missing. Don’t freak out just yet. You aren’t done yet.

The next step is to go to Settings>Store and then tap on your Apple ID at the bottom. Sign out and then sign back in with the account that you use for store purchases (your Apple ID that you have been using). Once you have done that you need to sync with iTunes once more and all your apps will come back.

This is actually an important step to transition from mobileme to icloud. In fact, if you don’t follow this process, you won’t be able to complete the iCloud setup on your Mac.

After doing all this you will be able to get access to all your previously purchased apps again and use the new iCloud services.

Wow. This will take some time to get our heads around, and believe me, they are spinning!

Here’s the super-high-level summary of what was announced today at the WWDC keynote presentation:

OSX Lion (much of this was previewed before now, but today it’s official)
$30 upgrade from OS X Snow Leopard – available in July, only from the Mac App Store (no physical disc option)
– A strong focus on full screen apps
– Deep multi-touch support for MacBook users or iMac users who have the Magic Trackpad
– App store, which BTW is now the most popular place for PC software purchases, beating bricks and mortar stores too, is now embedded into the OS
– When you buy new apps, they automatically appear in the Launchpad, which is essentially the iPad home screen interface – with apps displayed as icons on a grid
– Resume function brings an app right back to where you left off working – even if you quit the app completely
– AutoSave (the OS saves docs in the background for you, regardless of which app you’re working in)
– “Versions” lets you go back to previous document states to see older versions and even cut & paste between them
– AirDrop: peer to peer Wi-Fi sharing of documents (if you ever used IR sending to move files between two laptops, you already know how this works)
– Mail has new conversation and message preview modes, with better search
– Open windows can now be resized from any edge, not just the bottom right corner
– Safari has a “reading list” option which lets you send web pages to your other devices for reading at a later date/place

Notifications
– Notification Center app now puts all notifications in one place
– available from within any app by swiping down from the top of the screen (Android users will find this VERY familiar)
– includes weather and stock displays
– Notifications will no longer interrupt what you’re doing
– The lock screen has been enhanced, with notifications listed and direct access to apps that sent the note

Newsstand
– one location in the appstore for all subscriptions (newspapers, magazines)

Twitter Integration
– single sign-on
– integrated into apps like camera, photos, contacts so you can tweet directly from any of these apps without switching to a dedicated twitter app

Mail
– Rich text formatting
– Search entire message
– Flagging
– S/MIME support
– Encrypted email option
– Dictionary service throughout OS – any app can use it
– Address dragging from field to field e.g. move a recipient from the To: field to the BCC: field
– Enhanced keyboard with a thumb-oriented split-keyboard option (presumably intended for the iPad in portrait mode)

PC free
– iOS updates over the air (no need for iTunes on a PC or Mac)
– “Delta updates” download just what has changed

Game Center
– Addition of photos, achievement points, recommendations
– Buy games from within GC
– Turn based games support

iMessage
– Unified message service across all iOS 5 devices, not just iPhone
– delivery and read receipts, typing indicators, encryption
– iMessages appear at the top of the screen so visible, but doesn’t interrupt your current activity
– Embed photos, video
– Works over Wi-fi and 3G

iCloud
Free, Available with iOS 5 in the fall
Steve Jobs basically kicked MobileMe, insulted it, killed it and announced its successor: iCloud
The idea behind iCloud is the three core apps of MobileMe (iCal, Mail and Contacts) are now joined by 6 new apps, and all of them keep your digital content automatically (and wirelessly) synchronized across all of your iDevices and your computer (be it a Mac or PC)
Every time you take a photo using the camera app, send an email, update a calendar or a contact, the iCloud service grabs those updates and then pushes them back to any other device that shares your Apple ID (the account you use for iTunes).

The 6 new apps are:
– App Store gives you access to your full app history (any app that you have previously purchased or downloaded) so you can re-download it with one click instead of searching the app store, and going through the existing re-download process)
– iBookstore is the same concept as the App Store, but with the addition of bookmarks, so your books are now truly synced across devices the same way Amazon and Kobo work.
– iCloud Backup backs up all of your major content. In the event you lose your iDevice, you can bring all of that information back to your new device instantly. Backups happen automatically over Wi-Fi when your device is charging.
– iCloud Storage is a service that is essentially trying to do away with the file system that all computers use. Instead, any document created in any app, will be “owned” by that app. Changes to those documents get automatically sent to iCloud and then pushed back down to any other device that is running the same app. At launch, the iWork suite will take advantage of the service, but other apps will be able to use it too. Users get 5GB of free Storage space, which doesn’t include photos or music or apps. Extra space will be available for purchase.
– iCloud PhotoStream creates an automated and synchronized way of sharing your photos between devices. Any photo taken with the camera app is automatically streamed to your Mac, or your iPad or other compatible device. Works with PCs too. You can also do this with imported pics. PhotoStream will keep your most recent 1,000 photos for 30 days from upload and you can permanently keep any of them by moving them into albums.
– iTunes in the cloud is the first time you will be able to re-download purchased music from iTunes to up to 10 of your devices. One more thing: iTunes Match will look at all of your ripped music in iTunes, find the same tracks in the iTunes store and give you access to the iTunes versions on any of your devices for $24.99 USD per year.

Oh, and if you’re really curious about iTunes in the cloud, you can try it right now. iOS 4.3 only.

So what does all this mean?

OS X Lion:

Apple takes the desktop operating system to the next level by cleaning up a bunch of things that needed improvement e.g. any-edge window resizing and then layering on top of that some new features that make you say “why doesn’t every OS do that?” such as remembering what you were working on when you quit an app, and bringing you right back again when you open it the next time. Lion also shows that when it comes to touch interfaces, it’s all about the track pad, not the screen. So many Windows machines are trying to emulate the iPad experience on the PC, and yet fail to understand that touching a vertical screen is a horrible user experience. PCs – and Macs for that matter – are not tablets. So Apple is doing the next best (and logical) thing: importing the components of the iOS experience that *do* work on a PC, namely multi-touch and app stores. Lion represents the first really fundamental shift in the Mac OS paradigm since OS X debuted over 10 years ago, and these latest changes are arguably the most profound.

iOS 5:

If you’re an iOS developer you’ve got reason to celebrate: there are over 1,500 new way to make your apps work with Apple’s mobile OS. You’ve also got reason for insecurity: iOS 5 shows that Apple isn’t afraid to take some of the most popular features from the 3rd party apps and embed those directly into the OS. There are dozens of great camera apps out there, but they’ll have less of shine on them in the fall once you can re-touch and perform other edits right in the existing camera app.

If you’re an Android user, you don’t get to snicker about the iPhone’s terrible notifications – in fact, they look a LOT like Android’s notifications now.

If you’re a Blackberry user who has clung to their device because nothing really beats BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), you’re now one reason shorter for staying: iMessage will likely eclipse BBM as the worldwide favourite mobile messaging app as it appears to do all that BBM does and then some.

If you own an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch you will want to download this update as fast as you can get your hands on it. It’s easily the most feature-rich iOS release since the first version.

iCloud:

iCloud seems like both more and less than we had expected. The suite of 9 services is easily the most compelling of the cloud services to-date, including the products from Google and Amazon (plus you can bet it will work in Canada as soon as it launches which is more than we can say for the other companies). The “free” adjective works on several levels: The cost (it’s free), it’s worry-free and it’s restriction-free (pretty much). And while it looks like it’s going to do a great job wirelessly and automatically syncing data from device to device, there was no mention of movies or TV shows, which are both central to Google and Amazon’s cloud services. Perhaps Apple’s research indicates that while these would be nice, they aren’t as high on consumers’ wish lists as photos and music. They’re probably right. And if they’re wrong, I’m guessing that their brand-new eco-friendly and downright monstrous data centre in North Carolina will be able to tackle movies and TV shows without breaking a sweat.

Confirming months of speculation, Apple has announced that it will be debuting its “iCloud” service along with the next releases of iOS and Mac OS at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference next Monday, June 6, in California.

Also confirmed is that Steve Jobs will be delivering the keynote for the conference. Jobs has been on a greatly reduced work regimen lately as he focuses on his health.

While Apple isn’t saying anything about iCloud other than to reference it as Apple’s “upcoming cloud services offering,” the consensus is that it will offer some sort of music locker service tied to the company’s wildly popular iTunes product.

It could also feature access to TV shows and movies, which would put Apple and Google on a closer competitive footing than they have ever been before. Google announced it’s own cloud-based services earlier this month, promising access to music and movies on any internet-connected device.

Update: Well it seems Apple just can’t contain its excitement around new products. Instead of waiting for the WWDC – mere days away – the company has chosen to release the iPhone/iPod Touch versions of the iWork suite of apps today. Keynote, Pages and Numbers are the three apps that comprise the iWork suite and are all now compatible with the smaller-screen iDevices.

Given that WWDC is primarily focused on iOS and MacOS, you would think this update of the iWork apps might have made ideal fodder for Steve Jobs’ keynote speech. This advance release suggests that he will have a substantial amount to say on the larger operating systems and iCloud, and likely felt that this announcement would make the presentation too long.